The road through Death Valley National Park was almost otherworldly, not at all the flat desert that I expected. There was flat desert, but there were also high brown mountains with little or no plant life and a variety of shapes. A really stark landscape and although people had told me it would be hot in September, it wasn't just hot, it was HOT!
When we reached the Furnace Creek Campground, almost all of the sites that had any tree shade were marked reserved, but we did manage to find one and set up our tent. There were hardly any other campers in the park - neither tenters nor people in RV's, but we assumed that that was because it was still only 2:00 in the afternoon.
It was well over 100 degrees, more like 110, too hot to really do anything, so we spent a good bit of time taking shelter in theVisitors Center and Museum learning about the geology and history of the area.
Later we took a little nap in our tent, which was in the shade but still plenty warm.
Aafterwards, we were sitting on the porch of the store and gift shop when we were joined by a somewhat heavyset lady with two front teeth missing and a bottle of wine in a plain paper bag. She was the cleaning lady for the campground. She had worked in Florida until a hurricane seven years ago wiped out the place where she had been working. She seemed quite happy with her present job which gave her free housing with solar panels that enabled her to sell electricity back to the electric company. It was somewhat hard to understand her with those front teeth missing, but she was a cheerful soul and a pleasant break from the heat.
Just before sundown we went on a drive through Painters Drive to Painters Palette to see all of the different shades and colors of the rocks depending on what minerals were dominant during what periods of time. At Painters Palette, we just sat for a while and although it was a very desolate place, I wanted to see what life might be surviving there in spite of the lack of water and the intense heat. In the course of about twenty minutes I found:
. . . . 3 kinds of small brownish flowers 2 of them were just a few inches high and the third one was about a foot high
. . . .a very pale green plant
. . . . .a reddish brown plant
. . . . several large pale cream-colored bushes about two-and-a-half feet in diameter
. . . . several other bushes the same size but with pale green leaves
. . . . a fly and two dragon flies
Mother Nature just doesn't give up!
At the Visitors Center, I asked about all the reserved signs at the empty campground and was told that someone had just flipped up the reserved signs and that in fact the campground was as empty as it appeared.
The campground had no showers and only hot water, and Elise said that although she liked hot weather, she had finally met her match at Furnace Creek. We decided to get up early the next morning, hike through Golden Canyon and then move on.
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